Muslim Coins With Menorahs

Archeologists Assaf Avraham of Bar-Ilan University and Peretz Reuven of the Hebrew University are crowd-raising funds to publicize the notion that early Muslims in Yerushalayim were interested in integrating with the Jews living there.

As evidence of this, they point to Muslim coins of the time which have images of the menorah on one side and the stone crescent on the other, as well as pottery and led vessels that include the menorah in their design. In addition, an inscription found in a mosque in the village of Nuba describes Har Habayis as both the Bayt al-Maqdis and the al-Aqsa Mosque, as was common at that time.

Medieval historian Dr. Jeffrey Woolf, Associate Professor in the Naftal-Yaffe Talmud Department at Bar Ilan University, scoffed at their interpretation of the facts, telling Times of Israel that the Muslims of that time were not attempting to integrate with Jews but usurping them and stealing their symbols and beliefs.

The idea of “tolerance” on their part is “anachronistic and wishful thinking,” he said.